Advisory Committee Chair
Nir Menachemi
Advisory Committee Members
Eta S Berner
Peter M Ginter
Andrew C Rucks
Bisakha Sen
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2015
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) School of Public Health
Abstract
The three discrete research projects which make up this dissertation provide empirical evidence on the impact of, and adoption trends of, health information technology (HIT) as it pertains to cancer care. The findings of these studies are important as they provide insight into the potential of HIT to improve the quality of cancer care in the US. The results of this dissertation suggest that based on the current literature, HIT interventions seem to be more successful when targeting physicians, care in the prevention phase of the cancer continuum, and/or decision making. Separately, when seeking to understand the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) among hospitals providing cancer care, we found that hospitals accredited to provide cancer care by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) did not differ significantly in their adoption of comprehensive EHRs when compared to non-CoC-accredited hospitals. However, CoC-accredited hospitals were more likely to adopt basic EHRs, in addition to clinical decision support (CDS) systems which are vital to providing cancer care. Lastly, market conditions such as urban location and Medicare Advantage managed care penetration were found to be positively associated with EHR adoption, while the incidence rates of cancer within the county were found to be negatively associated with EHR adoption. Taken together, these findings may be of importance to researchers, health care providers, policymakers, and decision makers concerned with the impact of adopting HIT, as well important considerations that may influence their adoption.
Recommended Citation
Tarver, Willi L., "Impact of and adoption trends of HIT in cancer care" (2015). All ETDs from UAB. 3105.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/3105